{"id":73572,"date":"2025-03-19T23:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T22:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=73572"},"modified":"2025-03-22T20:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T19:18:22","slug":"jury-delivers-verdict-finding-greenpeace-entities-liable-for-more-than-660-million-in-energy-transfer-slapp-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/press-release\/73572\/jury-delivers-verdict-finding-greenpeace-entities-liable-for-more-than-660-million-in-energy-transfer-slapp-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury delivers verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million in Energy Transfer SLAPP trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Free speech and right to protest on the line in the United States.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Mandan, North Dakota \u2014 A Morton County jury of nine reached a verdict in Energy Transfer\u2019s meritless lawsuit against Greenpeace entities in the US (Greenpeace Inc, Greenpeace Fund), and Greenpeace International, finding the entities liable for more than US$660 million, today. Big Oil Bullies around the world will continue to try to silence free speech and peaceful protest, but the fight against Energy Transfer\u2019s meritless SLAPP lawsuit is not over. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe are witnessing a disastrous return to the reckless behaviour that fuelled the climate crisis, deepened environmental racism, and put fossil fuel profits over public health and a liveable planet. The previous Trump administration spent four years dismantling protections for clean air, water, and Indigenous sovereignty, and now along with its allies wants to finish the job by silencing protest. We will not back down. We will not be silenced,\u201d said Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director.  <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThis case should alarm everyone, no matter their political inclinations,\u201d said <\/strong>Sushma Raman, Interim Executive Director Greenpeace Inc, Greenpeace Fund.<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s part of a renewed push by corporations to weaponise our courts to silence dissent. We should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment, and lawsuits like this aimed at destroying our rights to peaceful protest and free speech. These rights are critical for any work toward ensuring justice \u2013 and that\u2019s why we will continue fighting back together, in solidarity. While Big Oil bullies can try to stop a single group, they can\u2019t stop a movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Energy Transfer\u2019s lawsuits are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs \u2014 lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[1] Big Oil companies Shell, Total, and ENI have also filed SLAPPs against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[2] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies\u2019 SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cEnergy Transfer hasn\u2019t heard the last of us in this fight. We\u2019re just getting started with our anti-SLAPP lawsuit against Energy Transfer\u2019s attacks on free speech and peaceful protest. We will see Energy Transfer in court this July in the Netherlands. We will not back down. We will not be silenced,\u201d said Greenpeace International General Counsel Kristin Casper.<\/p>\n\n

In February 2025, GPI initiated the first test of the European Union\u2019s anti-SLAPP Directive by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against ET.[3] GPI seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of ET\u2019s back-to-back, meritless lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars against GPI and the Greenpeace organisations in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

ENDS<\/p>\n\n

Photos and Videos can be accessed from the Greenpeace Media Library.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. ET\u2019s first lawsuit was filed in federal court under the RICO Act \u2013 the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed, with the judge stating the evidence fell \u201cfar short\u201d of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on the state law so ET promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A report by the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) documented<\/a> 1049 SLAPP suits in Europe in the period 2010-2023, with 166 lawsuits initiated in 2023.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Greenpeace International files lawsuit against Energy Transfer in first use of EU anti-SLAPP Directive<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

    Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

    Join the Greenpeace SLAPP Trial WhatsApp Group<\/a> for our latest updates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Free speech and right to protest on the line in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":72710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"ET SLAPP","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[79,144],"p4-page-type":[98],"class_list":["post-73572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about","tag-about-us","tag-et-slapp","p4-page-type-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73572"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73645,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73572\/revisions\/73645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73572"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=73572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}